Achievement

LUSH gets full visibility of supply chain, sales and stock

As cosmetics company headquartered in the UK that is 100% vegetarian and not tested on animals — and with more than 900 stores in 51 countries — Scott Silverthorn, Head of Data Services at LUSH,
said, “Freshness is very important to us. We’re an ethical cosmetics
company and make all of our products by hand so we needed full visibility of the supply chain, sales and stock.”

LUSH decided to invest in a business intelligence (BI) solution that could deal with multiple data sets, including data sourced from electronic point-of-sale, stock-management and payroll systems. The aim was to make data analytics available to shop-floor staff, as well as to employees in its warehouses and manufacturing divisions, so they could have near real-time information at their fingertips.

QlikView gives staff in-depth insights into profitability

LUSH deployed QlikView into its manufacturing business to keep track of stock levels, sales and freshness of product.

As Silverthorn said, “We selected QlikView because it’s an easy
system for all of our staff to use — even those who have minimal technical knowledge. It allows us to get in-depth insights into our company at every level. Managers have access to easily digestible
information in real time. Shop managers have told us they’ve had their most profitable year ever. That’s because QlikView gives them access
to all the data they need to manage their sales, stock and staffing. By gathering data together in one place for analysis, they can make smart, profitable decisions.”

User-driven BI saves £1 million in the first two years

Since deploying QlikView, LUSH has significantly boosted in-store profitability with user-driven BI and delivered more than £1 million of savings in lost stock. The key to this achievement was combining QlikView with LUSH stock value management systems.

“The QlikView helped us to deliver savings of more than £1 million in the first two years. We’re significantly reducing stock loss by giving people instant, easy access to the information they need,” Silverthorn said.

QlikView helps with HR monitoring and motivates staff

QlikView has also been deployed to help monitor human resources (HR). According to Silverthorn, “Our payroll department uses QlikView
to combine all of the data from timesheets and payroll systems, bringing it together into one report so they can view absences and staffing costs.”

In addition, the head office tracks the performance of its 900 stores in QlikView.

“We have sales league tables. With QlikView, we get all of the data in one place so we can compare performance from this year to last year. It allows the account team to analyze the data effectively and understand what’s going on in our business,” Silverthorn said.

Furthermore, QlikView has helped motivate staff by providing a new level of transparency to Lush’ internal systems. According to Silverthorn, “Our colleagues are naturally inquisitive people and giving
them access to data means they can find ways to improve performance and do a better job. Around 70 per cent of our staff log-in to QlikView at least once a day. Personally, I live in QlikView. The reporting function is so natural and intuitive that it’s easy to share with your colleagues, so everyone gets the same experience. I’d be lost without it.”

Featured QlikView Customer Stories

”Qlik has helped LUSH deliver a central point for live data analysis, contributing to savings of over £1 million in stock loss within 2 years. It’s working with us as a business in giving our people instant access to the information they want and allowing them to find that information very quickly and easily online.”

Scott Silverthorn, Head of Data Services

”Our vision for business is that in a 24/7 world, where data is abundant, trust, loyalty and transparency will drive market growth. Information and knowledge is free, but insight is scarce. Qlik helps us to realize these insights.”